USC Hit & Run Suspect Charged With Manslaughter

Update: Claudia Cabrera pleaded not guilty to the charges during her arraignment.A May 4 hearing has been set to decide whether she will be remanded to trial.

Adrianna Bachan

The L.A. District Attorney's office announced that Claudia Cabrera, 30, will shortly be arraigned on a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter and a felony charge of hit-and-run driving, "along with an allegation of causing great bodily injury." She is being held in lieu of $1 million bond. The manslaughter charge does not rise to a felony, at this point because, among other things, it'll never be proven whether Cabrera was intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Cabrera was not apprehended until five days after the incident in which two USC students, Adrianna Bachan and Marcus Garfinkle, were struck by a car allegedly driven by Cabrera as the couple crossed Jefferson Boulevard near Hoover Street early Sunday morning. Bachan was killed, while Garfinkle was seriously injured, having lain on the car's windshield as the car drove on for about 300 feet. At that point the car stopped and a passenger, believed to be Cabrera's husband, Josue Luna, got out and pushed Garfinkle off so the couple could drive on. Police say a seven-month-old child was also in the car. Luna is still being sought by police.